Wonkee
09-10-2004, 12:50 AM
I just recieved this E-mail a few minuites ago, it answers alot of questions about conditions, and gives the story from the view point of a Local, who went through it. The Story is written By Bonefish Guide Buddy Pinder's Girl Friend Cindy
Hi everyone.
The good news is we made it through Frances safe and sound. What a blow we had!!!! I was up at 5:00 am Friday morning and it was blowing a little. Our cable/internet was already out. >From this point on and until 5 PM today the only news we were receiving about Frances was via the radio. Thank heavens for our handy-dandy Hurricane Tracking Map! (It was hit and miss getting coordinates as the Florida radio stations rarely reported them until Frances got closer to Florida.) By 7:30 am the winds were getting stronger. At 8:00 am the eye was over Eluthra. (For those of you unfamiliar with Bahamas geography, Eluthra is the island just south of Abaco.) By 8:30 the winds were getting wicked here and our power went out. At noon we were under siege with 120 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 150 mph blowing out of the North East. At 2 pm the eye was passing over Hole in the Wall which is the southern most point on Abaco. It's about 50 miles south of Marsh Harbour, where we spent the storm, and 30 miles from Casuarina Point, where our home is.
We were very relieved that the winds dropped from 145 mph to a mere 120 mph by the time the storm was over Eluthra but when we realized how much the storm had slowed down we couldn't believe it. We knew we were in for a loooong night! Mama has a great porch that was on the lee side of the storm. We were able to spend some time out there watching and taking pictures. There was one huge tree, 75' tall, 8' in diameter, that had been in the yard 35 years that was taking a beating. Every time a huge gust would blow we could see the ground moving around the roots. The yard started flooding due to the rain and as the tree would move muddy water would churn around the roots. As the storm wore on, the tree continued to lift more and more. The last we saw before it went over it was lifting about a foot out of the ground. Sorry we missed the final blow. I bet that was a sight.
By 4:30 P.M. the winds had clocked around to South East so we could no longer go out on the porch. We could however go out the back door which has about a 3' cover over it. Glad I had a rain coat. Here's an interesting thing that happens during hurricanes: Around 6:00 P.M. the water in the toilet bowl started swishing back and forth and little while later the water was mostly gone and it was gurgling. It really sounds like there's some kind of critter in there trying to get out. Nothing that exciting though, it's actually just the wind in the plumbing air vent, but it's still weird.
At 8 P.M. Frances was down graded to a category 2 with 105 mph winds moving at four miles per hour. Let me tell you two things.
One - 105, 110, 115 doesn't really matter. You can't tell the difference. Two - We can all walk as fast, if not faster than four miles per hour. We really thought that storm was never going to leave!!! As the storm progressed shingles were blowing off of the 2nd story of Mama's house. The rest of the roof remained in tact. We also started to have a lot of leaking. When the wind blows that hard it forces the rain up under the shingles and then drips from the ceiling. Fortunately the ceiling is wood and the walls are concrete so there was no lasting damage. I think we used every towel in the house mopping up water puddles. Another interesting occurrence was when a huge gust of wind blew part of our hurricane shutter off the living room window. Fortunately the remaining part of the shutter and the window survived the rest of Frances but that window leaked buckets of water after that. Around this time someone came up with the great idea of turning on the VHF radio. We were listening to other's horror stories of the storm. Shutters blowing off, roofs blowing off, people running from their homes to their cars for safety as their homes integrity was in doubt, flooding, and on, and on. Up until that point we were relatively calm and having a non-eventful hurricane experience. As we started to hear about all the damage others were having we all started worrying about how our home in Casuarina was surviving the siege of wind and water. All I could picture in my mind was footage of the houses on stilts collapsing into the sea along the outer banks of North Carolina. The VHF was making us crazy so we turned it off. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!!
There's really nothing to do during a hurricane. It's hot, it's dark and it's noisy. Most of the night was spent listening to the radio for storm information and dozing. At 2:00 am it was still blowing hard. At 4:00 am the winds were starting to sound lighter but we still had heavy gusts rattling the house. By 5:00 am the winds were decreasing. Around 7:00 am we had tropical storm winds and by 10:00 am it was pretty much over with occasional rain and wind gusts. We also woke up to no running water - our final blow. Being old pros at hurricane survival we had plenty of water on hand for just this eventuality.
We put up with Frances for a little over 24 (long) hours but I can tell you it was nothing like Hurricane Floyd in 99. Floyd was way worse but a heck of a lot quicker. We had sustained winds around 155 with gusts of 180 to 200 mph then. Frances made a lot of noise but Floyd sounded like a freight train. When Floyd was over, there was not a leaf left on the island, it looked like we had been through a fire. With Frances we have lots of downed trees but the island is still green. In Floyd more than 2/3 of our power lines were down. With Frances probably a third of our lines went down. In Floyd we had huge boats lifted from the harbor and put in the streets. With Frances several boats sank but none were washed ashore. Almost every single house on the island is missing shingles, many are damaged, a few destroyed. That's pretty much the same as with Floyd but I think during Floyd there were more homes and businesses destroyed.
The worst thing we got from Frances was flooding. It was simply unbelievable the amount of water in the yards and streets. In the morning when the winds died down enough to open the porch door and we had a chance to look outside we couldn't believe our eyes. Mama's house is on a bit of a high spot. From about two feet off her porch for as far as the eye could see everything was under water. Buddy's old tin boat that sits in the yard where he normally parks his boats was ready to float off the trailer. We could of started the engine and driven away. All of the houses and cars in the neighborhood south of Mama's yard were under at least 3 to 4 feet of water.
Naturally after being cooped up in the house all that time we were anxious to check out the farm and our house. Buddy, his sister Kandy and I jumped in Buddy's truck and headed south. The roads were flooded somewhat but from the round-a-bout at the airport the water kept getting deeper. We were following a Ford pick-up truck and there was a flat bed behind us. Eventually the guy in front of us sucked up some water and stalled. Buddy tried to go around him and also sucked up water and stalled. Water poured into the truck to midway up our calves. Fortunately the flat bed was able to get around us both. He hooked up to the Ford. Then we hooked up to the Ford. Buddy actually had to dive under the water to hook the chain up on his truck. Fortunately the flat bed was able to pull us both to a dry spot. You live and you learn, we made it down those same flooded roads after Floyd - we just had so much more water this time we weren't expecting that problem. On of my neighbors, also anxious to get home, passed while we were unhooking our trucks. He made it a little further up the road in his Jeep Cherokee before he stalled out. I heard they were chest deep in water inside their vehicle. I'm really glad that wasn't us.
Several farm employees spent the hurricane at the farm in the processing building. Shortly after we returned home from our fiasco they arrived in the Big Bird (school) Bus. Buddy was so happy to see them. He returned to the farm in the bus. He told me the water was over his calves while standing on the second step of the bus in the deepest water along the road back to the farm. The farm took a heavy hit. We have lots of damage to the roofs of the chicken houses. A lot of the chicken wire on the houses broke loose. We now have free-range chickens. It's an unbelievable sight. There are chickens running loose everywhere. There are probably around 80,000 chickens at the farm - fortunately most of them are still in the houses. A large number of chickens are also dead. The floors of the chicken houses are a mixture of pine wood chips and chicken manure. When it's dry you can walk on it without any problem. When it's wet. .. . . .. .there's no way other way to put this. . .Buddy and the rest of the crew working in the houses are knee deep in ****. It is a real mess. Buddy smells really bad too! The worst thing that happened though is our generator broke down during the storm. All of the chicken houses are automated and it takes power to run the feed lines and water lines. Also our freezers were off. We needed a part from the States to fix it. We had to wait through Sunday and then we found out Monday was Labor day and everything was closed so we couldn't order the part until Tuesday. Luckily we were able to use someone's 40' freezer container to store our chicken until the stores and restaurants had power so t they could buy it and safely store it. The part was flown in yesterday and we got the generator fixed and power to everything at the farm. That was a huge relief. I believe they intend to start killing chickens tomorrow and processing Saturday so we'll be able to get food to the markets again soon.
We had our boats and my car parked in the back fields at the farm, far away from any flying debris that could do damage. Unfortunately the top was blown off Bottom Time, (We just put it on July 15th - that was short lived.) One of the compartment lids got blown off the flats boat but I don't think it's damaged, just needs re-installed. Matilida, my little Whaler got blown off her trailer but no damage done. My car made out fine, no leaks and it's nice and clean from all that rain. Just yesterday I retrieved my car from the farm - I have a PT Cruiser and it it sits so low to the ground I had to wait until all the water was gone on the roads until I could drive it. Today I picked up some storm debris and got a flat, lucky for me one of my neighbors passed by and was kind enough to change the tire for me. I was reading the owner's manual to find out where the spare was stored when he pulled up. Who knew?
After Buddy finally made it to the farm on Saturday while he was waiting for fan belts to be delivered for the generator he decided to go to Casuarina to check on our house. He took a flat-bed truck and headed south. (We're about 10 miles from the farm.) After traveling several miles he once again encountered deep water. After the earlier experience he decided not to risk it and attempted to turn around. When he did a metal rail on the back of the flat bed got stuck off the side of the road. His rear tires were in the air. He couldn't get himself unstuck and had to walk for an hour and a half to get back to the farm. Needless to say he was pissed! While he was off on his trek Kandy and I were driving around town looking at all the damage. When we got to the round-a-bout several of my neighbors were parked there discussing the water levels on the road. We were all trying to figure out what kind of vehicle might make it to Casuarina. We were all in pick-up trucks and decided we had better wait ONE MORE DAY. The suspense was killing us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally on Sunday we were able to negotiate the water in our flat-bed truck and we arrived in Casuarina. It's a mess! Every single house on the street is missing shingles. Almost all of the houses were either under water or had a small bit of water in them. (There are only 3 houses on stilts and most of the houses are rather old.) 5 or 6 of the houses had porches torn off or whole sections of the walls torn off. By the time we got to the end of the street to turn down our road I was a nervous wreck. 6 or 7 huge Casuarina Pines were blown down across the road so we had to crawl over and under them to get down the road. When I was finally able to see our house I couldn't believe my eyes. It's still there!!!!! Even better, we had virtually NO DAMAGE!!!!! I have never been so relieved in my life. Even the lattice work around the pilings is still there. We have a Bermuda roof - no shingles to loose. The landscape has changed some. All the pilings and rope along the beach front of my property are gone. Three that border the road floated away but I saw them when I was crawling under the downed trees. There's sand everywhere, most of the grass is under sand. There's a few small areas of paint on the soffit that were sandblasted off. There are also stains on the house from the pressure treated hurricane shutters and pine needles. That should all come off with Clorox. We have a glass block window in our shower which we didn't cover and water seeped in around the seams causing two tiles to fall off the shower wall. As far as we can tell that's all the damage we received. Plenty of clean up to do but we truly feel like the luckiest people in Abaco.
As if that isn't good news enough, our power (in Marsh Harbour) came back on Monday evening. Our water came back on Tuesday. Our cell phones are up and working. Several people have land lines working now, ours should be on here tomorrow. Our cable and internet came on this evening. I'm really glad, I've wanted to let you all know how we are doing. . . it's been a long time since the storm. I'm doubly glad as now I'll be able to watch the race Saturday night. Last Sunday I laid out in the yard under the stars and listened to the race on the radio. Rumor has it Casuarina should have power Friday. Our water is already on. Phone and cable may be a challenge, but I guess they'll get to us when they get to us. I can't wait to go home.
Before I end I hope all of our Florida friends made out OK during Frances and please know we're praying for you all during Ivan. I hope it goes west and leaves you alone. I'll look forward to hearing from everyone as I'm starved for news and contact with the outside world.
Warm regards,
Cindy and Buddy
Hi everyone.
The good news is we made it through Frances safe and sound. What a blow we had!!!! I was up at 5:00 am Friday morning and it was blowing a little. Our cable/internet was already out. >From this point on and until 5 PM today the only news we were receiving about Frances was via the radio. Thank heavens for our handy-dandy Hurricane Tracking Map! (It was hit and miss getting coordinates as the Florida radio stations rarely reported them until Frances got closer to Florida.) By 7:30 am the winds were getting stronger. At 8:00 am the eye was over Eluthra. (For those of you unfamiliar with Bahamas geography, Eluthra is the island just south of Abaco.) By 8:30 the winds were getting wicked here and our power went out. At noon we were under siege with 120 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 150 mph blowing out of the North East. At 2 pm the eye was passing over Hole in the Wall which is the southern most point on Abaco. It's about 50 miles south of Marsh Harbour, where we spent the storm, and 30 miles from Casuarina Point, where our home is.
We were very relieved that the winds dropped from 145 mph to a mere 120 mph by the time the storm was over Eluthra but when we realized how much the storm had slowed down we couldn't believe it. We knew we were in for a loooong night! Mama has a great porch that was on the lee side of the storm. We were able to spend some time out there watching and taking pictures. There was one huge tree, 75' tall, 8' in diameter, that had been in the yard 35 years that was taking a beating. Every time a huge gust would blow we could see the ground moving around the roots. The yard started flooding due to the rain and as the tree would move muddy water would churn around the roots. As the storm wore on, the tree continued to lift more and more. The last we saw before it went over it was lifting about a foot out of the ground. Sorry we missed the final blow. I bet that was a sight.
By 4:30 P.M. the winds had clocked around to South East so we could no longer go out on the porch. We could however go out the back door which has about a 3' cover over it. Glad I had a rain coat. Here's an interesting thing that happens during hurricanes: Around 6:00 P.M. the water in the toilet bowl started swishing back and forth and little while later the water was mostly gone and it was gurgling. It really sounds like there's some kind of critter in there trying to get out. Nothing that exciting though, it's actually just the wind in the plumbing air vent, but it's still weird.
At 8 P.M. Frances was down graded to a category 2 with 105 mph winds moving at four miles per hour. Let me tell you two things.
One - 105, 110, 115 doesn't really matter. You can't tell the difference. Two - We can all walk as fast, if not faster than four miles per hour. We really thought that storm was never going to leave!!! As the storm progressed shingles were blowing off of the 2nd story of Mama's house. The rest of the roof remained in tact. We also started to have a lot of leaking. When the wind blows that hard it forces the rain up under the shingles and then drips from the ceiling. Fortunately the ceiling is wood and the walls are concrete so there was no lasting damage. I think we used every towel in the house mopping up water puddles. Another interesting occurrence was when a huge gust of wind blew part of our hurricane shutter off the living room window. Fortunately the remaining part of the shutter and the window survived the rest of Frances but that window leaked buckets of water after that. Around this time someone came up with the great idea of turning on the VHF radio. We were listening to other's horror stories of the storm. Shutters blowing off, roofs blowing off, people running from their homes to their cars for safety as their homes integrity was in doubt, flooding, and on, and on. Up until that point we were relatively calm and having a non-eventful hurricane experience. As we started to hear about all the damage others were having we all started worrying about how our home in Casuarina was surviving the siege of wind and water. All I could picture in my mind was footage of the houses on stilts collapsing into the sea along the outer banks of North Carolina. The VHF was making us crazy so we turned it off. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!!
There's really nothing to do during a hurricane. It's hot, it's dark and it's noisy. Most of the night was spent listening to the radio for storm information and dozing. At 2:00 am it was still blowing hard. At 4:00 am the winds were starting to sound lighter but we still had heavy gusts rattling the house. By 5:00 am the winds were decreasing. Around 7:00 am we had tropical storm winds and by 10:00 am it was pretty much over with occasional rain and wind gusts. We also woke up to no running water - our final blow. Being old pros at hurricane survival we had plenty of water on hand for just this eventuality.
We put up with Frances for a little over 24 (long) hours but I can tell you it was nothing like Hurricane Floyd in 99. Floyd was way worse but a heck of a lot quicker. We had sustained winds around 155 with gusts of 180 to 200 mph then. Frances made a lot of noise but Floyd sounded like a freight train. When Floyd was over, there was not a leaf left on the island, it looked like we had been through a fire. With Frances we have lots of downed trees but the island is still green. In Floyd more than 2/3 of our power lines were down. With Frances probably a third of our lines went down. In Floyd we had huge boats lifted from the harbor and put in the streets. With Frances several boats sank but none were washed ashore. Almost every single house on the island is missing shingles, many are damaged, a few destroyed. That's pretty much the same as with Floyd but I think during Floyd there were more homes and businesses destroyed.
The worst thing we got from Frances was flooding. It was simply unbelievable the amount of water in the yards and streets. In the morning when the winds died down enough to open the porch door and we had a chance to look outside we couldn't believe our eyes. Mama's house is on a bit of a high spot. From about two feet off her porch for as far as the eye could see everything was under water. Buddy's old tin boat that sits in the yard where he normally parks his boats was ready to float off the trailer. We could of started the engine and driven away. All of the houses and cars in the neighborhood south of Mama's yard were under at least 3 to 4 feet of water.
Naturally after being cooped up in the house all that time we were anxious to check out the farm and our house. Buddy, his sister Kandy and I jumped in Buddy's truck and headed south. The roads were flooded somewhat but from the round-a-bout at the airport the water kept getting deeper. We were following a Ford pick-up truck and there was a flat bed behind us. Eventually the guy in front of us sucked up some water and stalled. Buddy tried to go around him and also sucked up water and stalled. Water poured into the truck to midway up our calves. Fortunately the flat bed was able to get around us both. He hooked up to the Ford. Then we hooked up to the Ford. Buddy actually had to dive under the water to hook the chain up on his truck. Fortunately the flat bed was able to pull us both to a dry spot. You live and you learn, we made it down those same flooded roads after Floyd - we just had so much more water this time we weren't expecting that problem. On of my neighbors, also anxious to get home, passed while we were unhooking our trucks. He made it a little further up the road in his Jeep Cherokee before he stalled out. I heard they were chest deep in water inside their vehicle. I'm really glad that wasn't us.
Several farm employees spent the hurricane at the farm in the processing building. Shortly after we returned home from our fiasco they arrived in the Big Bird (school) Bus. Buddy was so happy to see them. He returned to the farm in the bus. He told me the water was over his calves while standing on the second step of the bus in the deepest water along the road back to the farm. The farm took a heavy hit. We have lots of damage to the roofs of the chicken houses. A lot of the chicken wire on the houses broke loose. We now have free-range chickens. It's an unbelievable sight. There are chickens running loose everywhere. There are probably around 80,000 chickens at the farm - fortunately most of them are still in the houses. A large number of chickens are also dead. The floors of the chicken houses are a mixture of pine wood chips and chicken manure. When it's dry you can walk on it without any problem. When it's wet. .. . . .. .there's no way other way to put this. . .Buddy and the rest of the crew working in the houses are knee deep in ****. It is a real mess. Buddy smells really bad too! The worst thing that happened though is our generator broke down during the storm. All of the chicken houses are automated and it takes power to run the feed lines and water lines. Also our freezers were off. We needed a part from the States to fix it. We had to wait through Sunday and then we found out Monday was Labor day and everything was closed so we couldn't order the part until Tuesday. Luckily we were able to use someone's 40' freezer container to store our chicken until the stores and restaurants had power so t they could buy it and safely store it. The part was flown in yesterday and we got the generator fixed and power to everything at the farm. That was a huge relief. I believe they intend to start killing chickens tomorrow and processing Saturday so we'll be able to get food to the markets again soon.
We had our boats and my car parked in the back fields at the farm, far away from any flying debris that could do damage. Unfortunately the top was blown off Bottom Time, (We just put it on July 15th - that was short lived.) One of the compartment lids got blown off the flats boat but I don't think it's damaged, just needs re-installed. Matilida, my little Whaler got blown off her trailer but no damage done. My car made out fine, no leaks and it's nice and clean from all that rain. Just yesterday I retrieved my car from the farm - I have a PT Cruiser and it it sits so low to the ground I had to wait until all the water was gone on the roads until I could drive it. Today I picked up some storm debris and got a flat, lucky for me one of my neighbors passed by and was kind enough to change the tire for me. I was reading the owner's manual to find out where the spare was stored when he pulled up. Who knew?
After Buddy finally made it to the farm on Saturday while he was waiting for fan belts to be delivered for the generator he decided to go to Casuarina to check on our house. He took a flat-bed truck and headed south. (We're about 10 miles from the farm.) After traveling several miles he once again encountered deep water. After the earlier experience he decided not to risk it and attempted to turn around. When he did a metal rail on the back of the flat bed got stuck off the side of the road. His rear tires were in the air. He couldn't get himself unstuck and had to walk for an hour and a half to get back to the farm. Needless to say he was pissed! While he was off on his trek Kandy and I were driving around town looking at all the damage. When we got to the round-a-bout several of my neighbors were parked there discussing the water levels on the road. We were all trying to figure out what kind of vehicle might make it to Casuarina. We were all in pick-up trucks and decided we had better wait ONE MORE DAY. The suspense was killing us!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally on Sunday we were able to negotiate the water in our flat-bed truck and we arrived in Casuarina. It's a mess! Every single house on the street is missing shingles. Almost all of the houses were either under water or had a small bit of water in them. (There are only 3 houses on stilts and most of the houses are rather old.) 5 or 6 of the houses had porches torn off or whole sections of the walls torn off. By the time we got to the end of the street to turn down our road I was a nervous wreck. 6 or 7 huge Casuarina Pines were blown down across the road so we had to crawl over and under them to get down the road. When I was finally able to see our house I couldn't believe my eyes. It's still there!!!!! Even better, we had virtually NO DAMAGE!!!!! I have never been so relieved in my life. Even the lattice work around the pilings is still there. We have a Bermuda roof - no shingles to loose. The landscape has changed some. All the pilings and rope along the beach front of my property are gone. Three that border the road floated away but I saw them when I was crawling under the downed trees. There's sand everywhere, most of the grass is under sand. There's a few small areas of paint on the soffit that were sandblasted off. There are also stains on the house from the pressure treated hurricane shutters and pine needles. That should all come off with Clorox. We have a glass block window in our shower which we didn't cover and water seeped in around the seams causing two tiles to fall off the shower wall. As far as we can tell that's all the damage we received. Plenty of clean up to do but we truly feel like the luckiest people in Abaco.
As if that isn't good news enough, our power (in Marsh Harbour) came back on Monday evening. Our water came back on Tuesday. Our cell phones are up and working. Several people have land lines working now, ours should be on here tomorrow. Our cable and internet came on this evening. I'm really glad, I've wanted to let you all know how we are doing. . . it's been a long time since the storm. I'm doubly glad as now I'll be able to watch the race Saturday night. Last Sunday I laid out in the yard under the stars and listened to the race on the radio. Rumor has it Casuarina should have power Friday. Our water is already on. Phone and cable may be a challenge, but I guess they'll get to us when they get to us. I can't wait to go home.
Before I end I hope all of our Florida friends made out OK during Frances and please know we're praying for you all during Ivan. I hope it goes west and leaves you alone. I'll look forward to hearing from everyone as I'm starved for news and contact with the outside world.
Warm regards,
Cindy and Buddy